Introduction

Nepal is poised on the verge of a historic and precarious precipice. Nepal, having suffered from a more than decade long armed conflict with devastating impacts on the social and political foundations of the country, is on the verge of peace. Although in size, Nepal is only 855 km from east to west and 193 km from north to south, and populated by 24.2 million people, it is situated between India and China, having potentially large geopolitical and strategic impacts on world politics. Members of the Maoist insurgents are poised to become part of the mainstream political structure. Yet, if they were to be dissatisfied with the peace process and stage a coup for example, strong reactions would come from both of its neighbours. The way in which Nepal chooses to solve its conflict and address the primary and secondary causes of it, certainly has implications for leaders and international security policy experts with interests in countries with similar preconditions; they can potentially learn from the Nepali case, and avoid thousands of unneeded lost lives.

At the writing of this chapter, peace talks between the Maoist talk team and the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) were underway. Although the appointment in August 2006 of Mr Ian Martin, Personal Representative of the United Nations Secretary General in Nepal for Support to the Peace Process (a choice hailed by all parties to the conflict) the inability of the parties to advance on topics such as the role of the monarchy and the management of arms and armies, has led to untenable peace and a future with potential further violence.